Main observation and conclusionrnDeveloping multi-element composites is a promising way for high performance supercapacitor material development,and simplifying the synthesis steps is critical for reducing the preparation costs and successful promotion of the materials.A novel one-step selective reaction strategy is developed,and successfully used to prepare four-element ZnO-CoSe2 (ZOCS) nano-spherical composites,to be used as supercapacitor materials.Started form nano-spherical glycerate templates,under the optimal synthesis condition,the ob-tained ZOCS-0.125 electrode material exhibits a specific capacitance of 450.7 F/g at 1 A/g and a good rate performance by keeping 76.8％ capacitance at 20 A/g.Moreover,the ZOCS-0.125 electrode exhibits excellent cycle stability of 114.9％ capacitance retention after 5000 cycles at 10 A/g.An asymmetric supercapacitor assembled by ZOCS-0.125 and activated carbon electrodes delivers an en-ergy density of 22.35 Wh/kg at 825 W/kg,and a cycle stability of 105.6％ capacitance retention after 5000 cycles.This work not only shows the good potential of the facilely prepared ZnO-CoSe2 composite electrode material,but also demonstrates a new strategy for low cost and high performance multielement composite material development,that can be used in a wide range of applications.